'Merchants of Doubt' approaches the climate change controversy from a novel angle

The movie is the newest project from documentarian Robert Kenner, who was behind the film 'Food, Inc.'

By
Peter Rainer, Film critic /
March 6, 2015

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Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, a political action group focused on limited government and free markets, is seen in 'Merchants of Doubt.'

Don Lenzer/Sony Picture Classics

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Robert Kenner, the documentarian who made “Food, Inc.,” is back with “Merchants of Doubt,” which approaches the climate change controversy, already well covered in film, from a somewhat novel angle.

The film targets the spinmeisters, hired by or associated with corporate interests, whose job, despite their lack of scientific training, is to discredit the science of climate change doomsayers. The fact that some of these spinmeisters proudly base their method on the machinations of tobacco-industry lobbyists is doubly damning. Grade: B (Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.)